Fueled by drugs and alcohol Pattie Mallette--who launched the the chart topping teen sensation by posting his videos on Youtube—once tried to throw herself in front of a huge truck in a desperate bid to end it all. But amazingly the driver swerved to avoid her and just a year later, she was pregnant with the global phenomenon.
The 34-year-old beauty said: “The sexual abuse in my life started when I was about five-years-old until I was about 10 or so.
“It was just sort of known that you don’t say anything. You didn’t want to ruffle the feathers and cause trouble and hurt people, so you sort of take it and hide.”
Pattie who grew up in London, Canada had a troubled upbringing, dominated by a violent father and tainted by tragedy.
She explained: “My biological father had abused my mother for about 10-years before he passed away so it was just a lot of tension in the home.
“My father left when I was three but my mother remarried. It was a pretty broken home. I wasn’t real close to my family. There was a lot of hurt. My sister was killed by a car when she was five.”
With her family consumed by grief, she remained quiet about her abuser, who she has not named.
Pattie continued: “As a little girl I kept bottling it up, you know, kept it inside.”
But remaining silent took it’s toll on the youngster and like many victims of sexual abuse, she turned to drugs and alcohol to numb her inner torment.
She recalled: “When I became a teenager that’s sort of when I started experimenting with drugs and alcohol and some things to try and relieve the pain.”
“I just experimented with crime and the wrong kinds of people and just trying to do anything to get some joy or some pleasure or something.”
It meant that her high school days passed in a blurry, drugged out haze as she attempted to battle the inner demons inflicted on her by her cruel abuser.
“I was pretty much high or drunk from the time I woke up to the time I went to bed. I started when I was about 14 or 15,” she said.
“There was a community. I mean you try stuff and you want to fit in and be round everybody but it becomes about what it’s filling inside of you or what you think it’s filling inside of you and it’s sort of just masking the pain.
“Any substance abuse when you’re addicted it just takes over your life. You become selfish, you don’t care about anybody else, but your own satisfaction.”
By 15, Pattie, had completely gone off the rails and she ran away from home, moving in with a group of men, which only sent her substance abuse skyrocketing.
She explained: “I just lived a life of sin, drugs and alcohol constantly and parties constantly and not going to school and stealing, just my own world.
“I went away from home at 15. I really didn’t get along with my parents at all. I ended up living in a home of guys. There was four guys that I lived with.”
At around the same time, she followed her mother’s footsteps, entering into a series of abusive relationships.
Added Pattie: “The relationships I was in were definitely not healthy relationships, by any means. Not physical but definitely emotional, very unhealthy.”
By 17 life had become too much to bear, so hoping the impact would kill her, she timed an accident, leaping in front of a huge truck on a busy road near her home.
She recalled: “I had just had enough of everything. I had, you know, the abuse from my childhood was built up for so long and just keeping that a secret for so long and all the drugs and all the alcohol and all the life I was living and just the bad relationships I was in.
“I was depressed and angry and it just snapped one day and I said: “I want to die” and I wanted to find the quickest way possible to die.”
Added Pattie: “I didn’t have a gun, I didn’t have medication and I ran outside and I thought I timed it perfectly. I was on a really busy street and I tried to kill myself and get hit by a car.”
Amazingly, the driver reacted quickly enough to avoid the desperate teen.
She said: “There was a sidestreet and he slammed on the brakes and turned down the sidestreet. I was so angry and embarrassed and ashamed that I didn’t get hit.
“It was crazy. I was just a teenager, just hurting, just wanting an escape.”
It was then she hit her lowest point.
Pattie explained: “I wound up in the hospital in the mental health ward for trying to commit suicide.
“I didn’t have any friends come and visit me and I realized I really didn’t have any friends at that point.”
It was a youth centre leader called John, who helped Pattie on the slow road to recovery.
Bringing in fast food for her, he counseled her and introduced her to the Christian faith, which initially the troubled teen was resistant to.
She said: “In my head, I’d be rolling my eyes and thinking man he talks about God. It’s not even Sunday.
“Then one day he said to me: “You know you tried to kill yourself. You don’t even want to live anymore. You don’t want your life. God created you with a plan and a purpose.
“What do you have to lose to see what his plan is for you, what his purpose is for you and I couldn’t even roll my eyes in my heart at that one. I was just stumped.
“I thought I’m at rock bottom. I’ve got nowhere to go, I’ve got nothing lose by giving him a chance, if he’s real.”
Giving up the drugs and booze, Pattie initially embraced the church, but within six to eight months, she started to return to her bad habits.
Pattie recalled: “I ended getting back into drugs and alcohol and my I life. I ended up going to church a little bit less and a little bit less and I ended up pregnant.
“I thought: “Oh my gosh. I took my life back into my own hands and I’m all by myself and I’m pregnant. God Help Me.”
Bieber remains in contact with his father Jeremy, who has since married another woman and had two children, but at the time Pattie was very much alone.
After he was born she worked a series of low-paying office jobs and they lived together in low income housing, a far cry from the lavish home, she now shares with Justin, in Atlanta.
Money was also incredibly tight for the young mum who at times struggled to make ends meet.
She said: “There were days when I had no food in my fridge. I had no idea how I was going to get my next meal.
“I had no idea how I’m going to feed Justin.”
But helped by members of her church congregation, Pattie who doted on her young son, managed to get by.
She said: “ People would just show up at the door with boxes of food that day.”
Another kind soul bought her car.
It was all a far cry from the life she enjoys today, because of her supremely talented son – who from a young age taught himself to play the piano, trumpet guitar and drums.
When he was twelve, Bieber sang Ne-Yo's "So Sick" for a local singing competition and Pattie posted a video of the performance on YouTube for their family and friends to see.
She continued to upload videos of Bieber singing covers of various R&B songs, generating a huge following.
His popularity on the site grew and he was spotted by a record company marketing executive.
A furious bidding war started for his signature and he eventually linked up with R&B superstar Usher, who helped catapult him to global superstardom.
And Pattie couldn’t be prouder of success he’s achieved, especially after the humble beginnings he came from.
She said: “He is not just healthy but he is so beautiful and so talented and so gifted and he’s just got he biggest heart and I’m so unbelievably blessed.”
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